Function #46: Auto-Calculate Sales Margin on a Quote
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about displaying the discount amount in words. This week, it's going to be about automatically calculating the sales margin for a particular quote, sales order or an invoice. Business scenario Where there is sales, there's also evaluation and competition between sales reps. A healthy rivalry helps to better motivate your employees to do smart work and close deals faster and more efficiently. But how does a sales rep get evaluated? 90% of the time, it's
Zoho CRM Functions 53: Automatically name your Deals during lead conversion.
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about automatically updating the recent Event date in the Accounts module. This week, it's going to be about automatically giving a custom Deal name whenever a lead is converted. Business scenario Deals are the most important records in CRM. After successful prospecting, the sales cycle is followed by deal creation, follow-up, and its subsequent closure. Being a critical function of your sales cycle, it's good to follow certain best practices. One such
Function #35: Close all tasks associated with a lead and create a new task.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to close all tasks of a deal depending upon the deal stage. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a lead while simultaneously creating a new task, like when you need to halt all progress towards a lead while the lead is not available at the moment but create a reminder task. Business scenario: The success of a company, in one way or another, is determined by the leads it gets. Each lead is just
Function-13: Add Invoice grand total in words with the click of a button
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to add pre-defined notes in a click. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you add the invoice grand total in words with the click of a button. Business scenario: Countries across the globe follow different numbering formats with comma and decimals being used interchangeably: In the US, comma (,) is used as thousands separators where as in Germany, period (.) is used. In the US, period (.) is used as decimal separator where as in Germany,
Function-5: Create Quotes from deals with just the click of a button!
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt about how to get the total taxes, total quantity and total discounts for a customer at a glance. This week, let's look at a custom function that makes your deals proceed smoother by creating a one-click-Quote directly from the deal. Business scenario: You hit a stage in a deal when you know it would follow through. This is when you must create a Quote. which is a legal agreement between a prospect and a vendor. Wouldn't it be cool to add a button to the
Function #43: Transfer record information from one module to another with subform datas.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to Organize Contacts based on the Deal Stages. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you transfer data captured from one module to the other along with the subform data. Business scenario: The standard sales process involves entering the leads acquired through various channels to the CRM followed by lead qualification and conversion. The process is quite linear - create a lead --> qualify the lead --> convert it to contact -->
Function-6: Sum up multiple quotes grand total associated to a deal.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to - create quotes from deals with just the click of a button. This week, let's look at a custom function that sums up total value across the quotes linked to a specific deal. Business scenario: Assume you created a deal pertaining to a particular product category that your organization is engaged. This deal is linked with all the related quote records across customers. Or another deal related to all businesses done in the current fiscal year with a
Function-20: Create Events automatically on specific days of the week
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to add leads to campaign records at the click of a button. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you create events automatically on specific days of the week. Business scenario: Customer visits are an integral part of most sales processes. Apart from aiding you close sales efficiently, meeting with customers help maintain an ongoing business relationship, a critical component in customer retention. The Event records in the Activities
Function-12: Add pre-defined notes to records in a click
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to turn a contact into a vendor. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you add pre-defined notes at the click of a button. Business scenario: Every bit of information shared by prospects in a sales call gets you closer to making the sale. Keeping a track of these information not only helps you pick up from where you left off for subsequent calls, but also helps tailor your offering by putting the prospects in appropriate campaigns, set
Function-9: Concatenate two fields into a single one.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to assign leads based on your sales reps' shift timings. This week, let's look at a custom function that allows you to combine the information in two fields and present them in a single field. Business scenario: Leads are acquired from a variety of sources. Trade fairs, web-forms, referrals, etc are some of the sources. However, you don't get the complete information about a lead at the start. That aside, how will you fill up fields when you don't have
Function-25: Populate the Amount field of a Deal by calculating the number of related products and its unit price.
Welcome back people! Last week, we looked at a custom function that enabled you to create purchase orders from sales orders at just the click of a button. This week, let's look at another custom function which lets you populate the Amount field in a Deal by calculating the number of products and its unit price. Business Scenario: I’m sure you’d agree that the Deal Dashboards is one of the most sought after widgets in Zoho CRM. One of my favorite ones is “Pipeline by Stage” widget that gives a clear
Function-14: Get record owner details inside a record with the click of a button
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to display grand total of Invoices in words. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you fetch the details of a record owner inside a record with the click of a button. Business scenario: Lot of factors lead to a winning deal. Besides the obvious of being the first of the vendors to reach out to a prospect and closely following up without overwhelming the potential customer, and arranging for timely presale support, the processes followed
Function #50: Schedule Calls to records
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about changing ownership of multiple records concurrently. This week, it's going to be about scheduling calls for records in various modules. Business scenario Calls are an integral part of most sales routines.. Sales, Management, Support, all the branches of the business structure would work in cohesion only through calls. You could say they are akin to engine oil, which is required by the engine to make all of it's components function perfectly. CRM
Function #37: Create a Purchase Order from a Quote
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to calculate the total number of activities for a lead and further take note of the activity count for particular dates. For instance, from the period of Demo to Negotiation. This week, let's look at a function that lets you create a Purchase Order instantly from a Quote. Business scenario: In any form of business, one of the most important things to do is to document the transactions. Naturally, negotiation, signing an agreement, placing an order,
Function-2: Round-Robin assignment of records
Welcome back folks! Last week, we saw how to update sales commission in quotes using a custom function. This week, let's see an interesting use case asked by many of you - auto-assignment records by round-robin method. Business scenario: Right now, the solution allows you to auto-assign leads from web form and imported lists. Let us look at a need where you want to auto-assign leads from in-bound calls in a round-robin method, across modules. Prerequisite: You must create a permanent record in the
Function-26: Update information between two modules via Lookup fields.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to populate the Amount field in a Deal by calculating the number of products and its unit price. This week, let's look at a custom function that updates information between two modules via Lookup fields. Business scenario: Quotes are binding agreements between a customer and a vendor, to deliver the requested products to the customer within a specified time-frame at a predefined price. Your customers can place orders within a stipulated period (validity
Function-28: Transfer record information from one module to another, based on specific criteria.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to create activities automatically based on specific criteria. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you transfer record information from one module to another, even for custom modules. Business scenario: Custom Modules enable you to create entire modules according to your requirements. You can also define the layout of the record in the module, set up layout rules, customize the fields of a record, set up hyperlinks and buttons, etc.
Function #42: Organize Contacts based on the Deal Stages
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about updating subform records in two accounts simultaneously whenever one of them is updated. This week, it's going to be about displaying the Deal stages as "tags" in the Contacts records. Business scenario We all have our own ways of categorizing stuff. Lets say, you have a bunch of novels and you categorize them based on the genre, like "Action & Adventure", "Fantasy" or "Thriller". All of them are placed under a "Book Shelf" with separate sections
Function-21: Update all member accounts simultaneously when the parent account is updated.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to create events automatically on specific days of the week. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you to update member accounts automatically when the parent account is updated. Business scenario: It isn't strange to have multiple branches in a business. Or having contacts with multiple branches of the same company. Either way, it would be better to have multiple member accounts for easier identification rather than have all contacts
Function-10: Add the international call prefix '+' to a phone number.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to concatenate two fields and present them in a single field. This week, let's look at a custom function that prefixes a '+' symbol to phone numbers and removes the alpha characters from the numeric field. Business scenario: Any business involves a lot of communication. The most preferred way is to make a phone call. To make your life easier, Zoho CRM lets you call directly from the system. Naturally, you need an international call access code, which
Function-23: Auto-update multiple fields of a record with same details.
Welcome back people! Hope your new year is off to a great start! Lets begin this year with a simple yet useful custom function that lets you automatically update multiple fields of a record with the same details. Business Scenario: Recently, we got an interesting request from one of our customers. She was looking to update multiple fields of a record with the same details. Though copy-paste was an obvious solution, she was convinced that automation would help cut down on errors resulting from manual
Function-22: Automatically update field details from Contacts in Deals right at the creation stage
Welcome back, everyone! Last week, we learned how to update all member accounts simultaneously when the parent account is updated. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you update the relevant details from contact records in deal records at the click of a button. Business scenario: The Deals module in Zoho CRM helps keep track of all your business opportunities. To ensure proper lead qualification process with all specifics, it is recommended to first create a lead, convert it into
Function-7: Add Country codes to contact numbers.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how tosum up the total across multiple quotes associated to a deal. This week, let's look at a custom function that allows you to add the country codes to mobile numbers that makes it convenient to make calls directly from CRM. Business scenario: Web forms is one of the easiest ways to generate leads in most organizations. Be it an access form that lets prospects watch an on-demand webinar, or a 'Contact us' form that a prospect fills out to reach you,
Function-4: Get the total quantity, taxes and discounts for a record at a glance!
Welcome back folks! Last week, we learnt about auto-update of account information across CRM. This week, let's look at a custom function that makes accounting and report generation easier by automatically calculating the amount of tax, discounts and the quantity of items for a particular record in a quote, invoice, purchase order or sales order. Business scenario: I'm sure you agree that meticulous tracking and management is critical for your business to hold up and flourish. You need to keep an
Function-1: Compute and update sales commission in quotes.
Welcome back folks! In this week's custom functions series, we've picked a requirement that has often been asked by users! Business requirement: In most sales organizations, commissions are an integral part of the extrinsic rewards program, contributing significantly to the sales person’s compensation package. Sales commission is usually calculated as a percentage of revenue generated by the sales person. What if your sales team is enabled with an option to check their sales commission associated
Function-18: Update the lead records with Notes and Activities count.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to auto-update tasks from other modules. This week, let's look at a custom function that helps you get the total count of Activities and Note right inside your lead records. Business scenario: On an average how many times should I call a lead before moving on? I’m sure most of you would have faced this dilemma at one point or the other. Effective prospecting takes time and effort. Notes and Activities are important CRM utilities that helps keep a tab
Function #41: Sync Associated Subforms!
Welcome back everyone! The last custom function showed how to update a Contact with Product details from it's Related list in Deals. This week, let's look at a function that lets you update subform records in two modules simultaneously when one of them is updated. Business scenario Let's look at how subform helps in an education institution that has deployed Zoho CRM. National Public School, Austin (made up, of course!) has set up Zoho CRM and it follows the same relationship pattern of "Students",
Function-19: Add leads to campaign records at the click of a button.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to update the lead records with the Notes and Activity count. This week, let's look at a custom function that adds the leads to campaign records at the click of a button. Business scenario: The Campaigns module in Zoho CRM helps you plan and run promotional campaigns effectively. The campaign record centralizes all the related leads, contacts and deals associated with the campaign. It helps you stay on top of cost, revenue, and the revenue pipeline
Function-32: Send mass emails to specific groups of leads or contacts
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to get the timezone of your leads and display them in the record. This week, let's look at a function that lets you send mass emails to specific sets/groups of users from the List view page of the module. Business scenario: Although the ways in which people communicate with each other has grown to an extent where there are lots of different ways, the most simplest but effective means would be emails. Especially in the case of businesses. No matter if
Function-16: Send automatic updates on deal progression by stage to all the Contact Roles
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to notify task owners when the ownership is changed. This week, let's look at a custom function lets you send automatic updates on deal progression by stage to all the Contact Roles Business scenario: The Deals module in Zoho CRM is designed to associate only one Contact per deal. Very often, B2B sales require touching upon multiple stakeholders, and the person you engage with need not be the decision maker. It is essential to keep track of all the
Function-8: Assign leads based on users' shift timing.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to add country codes to phone numbers. This week, let's look at a custom function that allows you to assign leads by matching the lead acquisition time and your sales reps' shift timing. Did you know? Research shows that Vendors who respond first to a prospect win 35-50% of the deals. The chances of converting is 9x more if you reach a prospect within the first 5 minutes. Business scenario: The stats above prove an important point - the quicker your
Zoho CRM: Automate using Custom Functions - An Introduction
Hi folks! With every growing business, the next step is what matters. Zoho CRM manages your business; makes it easy. But say you want a little more ease in CRM, you want a tad more flexibility in a framework. For example, Let' s assume that a user needs to create invoice copies of purchase orders to make accounting easier. However, this option is normally unavailable in your CRM account. So how do you do it? Your solution: Custom Functions! What are Custom Functions? Custom functions in Zoho
Zoho CRM Functions 52: Automatically update the recent Event date in the Accounts module!
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about updating Related Records automatically using info from Linking modules. This week, it's going to be about updating a custom field in the Accounts module with information from the Events section of the Activities module. Business scenario The importance of spending quality time with your clients and prospects cannot be understated. Be it sharing samples or explaining your products and services, meetings go a long way establishing customer trust.
Function-27: Create Activities for records based on specific criteria.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to update information between two modules via lookup fields. This week, let's look at a custom function that creates activities automatically based on specific criteria. Business scenario: The Workflow Rules feature takes care of most of the automation requirements in Zoho CRM. Some of you might be wondering why is there a need to rely on custom functions, when workflows, blueprints or schedules helps meet most of your requirements. While this is largely
Function-3: Auto-update account information across CRM.
Welcome back once again folks! Last week, we learnt about round-robin assignment of records using custom functions. This week, we'll take a look at a custom function that saves your time by auto-updating all the related fields in a selected module when those fields get updated in the Accounts module. Business scenario: Take a case of leads captured through web-forms. Most leads don't fill out the entire form. Once the lead is prospected, you go on to create relevant records in contact and accounts
Function #38: Subform Updates
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we saw how to create a Purchase Order from a Quote. This week, let's look at a function that lets you add subform records easily by having the records from other modules as a lookup field within a subform. Subforms: Explaining plainly, a subform is simply a form within a form. Since all the data stored within your CRM is inter-dependent, there is a need to associate multiple items/records to a single record. To learn more about subforms, click here. This feature
Zoho CRM Functions 51: Update Related Records automatically using info from Linking modules.
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about scheduling calls to records. This week, it's going to be about updating a record in one module with information from the linking modules, when two different records are linked. Linking Modules Multi-select lookup fields help create many-to-many relationships between records across modules. Linking Modules help facilitate this records association across modules. The records in the Linking Module contains info from the two 'linked' records. More
Function #49: Changing Ownership of Multiple Related Records concurrently!
Welcome back everyone! Last week's function was about tracking refunds and adjusting the sales executive's revenue in Zoho CRM. This week, it's going to be about simultaneously changing the ownership of a record across multiple modules when it is changed in a single module. Business scenario Each of us have our strengths and weaknesses. Someone skilled in sales might not necessarily be better in management. It goes to show that in order to successfully run an enterprise, you need an amalgamation
Function-31: Get the timezone of your leads
Welcome back everyone! I'm sure most of you already know this, but we have introduced the newer version of Zoho APIs (Version 2.0). Functions(previously, Custom Functions) also underwent an update, regarding the said APIs and some more. However, this week's function still uses the Version 1.0. Zoho APIs, because the transition from v1.0 to v2.0 is still in progress. Stay tuned for more updates. Last week, we learnt how to keep track of your business details with a Company or a Contact. This week,
Function #34: Close all tasks associated with a deal based on it's stage.
Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to create Accounts from Leads with all the data at the click of a button. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a deal depending upon the deal stage. Business scenario: Winning a deal is never easy. There are a lot of stuff that you need to do in order to follow through with the deal. Qualification, Analysis, Value Proposition, Identifying Decision Makers, Proposals, Negotiations, etc are the
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